photo by Audrey Hall
Thursday, September 24, 2015
6pm PST / 9pm EST
Kristen will be offering a live discussion / Q&A on her participation on the Frontier House documentary.
Tickets can be purchased here:
Author Archives: Kristen Brooks
Bali Round Up
This little segment of our time in Bali is coming to a close.
Our 60-day Indonesian visa is up, so we need to go somewhere out of this country for a little while. Then we are coming back to Bali on January 25 to welcome Nate’s father and brother to our little patch in paradise.
So, for now, we are off to Cambodia for 17 days.
This departure is causing us to feel reflective on our time spent here in Bali. The goal of this part of our travel was to really settle into this place and ourselves. And it worked. It has seriously worked.
So in this post, we are going to give you the Bali Round Up. Mostly catch you up on the rad crazy pictures of the cool stuff we have done here.
Here we go.
MASSIVELY COOL STUFF THAT HAS HAPPENED TO US
Attending a Cremation
Undoubtedly, one of the highlights of this experience for Nate was attending the Hindu funeral and cremation ceremony for a very respected man in the village. Nate was invited to join a group of men that carried the body in a parade through town. It was unthinkable really that he got to do this – very much an honor. The body was housed inside a large paper mache bull that that the men carried to the cremation site.
Invites for Dinner in the Village
This is sort of an extension of our Busy Village Social Calendar post. Because we “live” here at this resort, we have gotten to know all the staff that works here. They all live close by, mostly in the village around the resort, many of them on the same street. Udi was the first to invite us to his house for dinner. It was an exciting night to be invited into the home of a new Balinese friend and see the inside workings of a “real” Balinese home. They made us dinner, bought our kids freshly made sweet fruit drinks, and then the kids watched TV in a bedroom below.
Roasting a Pig for a Celebration
Having been on a Holland American Cruise ship, we met tons of Indonesian men and women who were completing their 10 month contracts with the ship. Several were heading home to Bali. Well, interestingly enough, we were invited to (what is essentially a) welcome home party for one guy from the village who was returning from Holland America. Preparations started early in the morning, and they began roasting this pig around 10am. Nate, Pippin and I were thrilled to get a chance to give it a whirl!
Releasing Baby Turtles
As part of a fishing competition that took place one morning right in front our resort, a local conservatory brought baby turtles for the kids to release into the ocean. This could have been a fancy and expensive tour for us….but instead the event just showed up on our doorstep. Awesome, indeed.
Surfing
Scuba Diving
Christmas
Mazi and Finn with Santa Bayu on Christmas Eve
Christmas was a little bit different this year, of course.
Our holiday season was completely uneventful considering there were no presents to shop for, wrap, or send. No parties in December. No cards sent or received.
But it didn’t feel the least bit sad because there was nothing to remind us that we were missing anything. (Were we missing anything?)
On the 23rd we threw our own impromptu “”cookie swap.”” This involved all 5 of us heading into the local mini mart and each picking out our own package of cookies. We then went back to the room and “”swapped.”” It is a tradition we might just need to keep!
Our Christmas Cookie Swap
On Christmas Eve, the hotel threw a big thingy. As part of our rental situation, we were invited to attend as guests. It was a lovely evening that could have doubled as a killer wedding or outrageously awesome beachfront party.
After this gorgeous feast, we went off to bed. We wondered how Santa works exactly. For example, can even come to Indonesia, since he is based in the Northern Hemisphere? Would he come on the night of the 24th in Indonesia, or would he wait until it was the night of the 24th in America?
For those of you who have googled this question and have found our blog for answers, we answer you this:
Santa totally comes to Indonesia. He just brings a heck of a LOT less stuff.
Christmas morning was short and sweet. The kids tore through their stockings, opened their one present each, and then we walked to breakfast. On the pathways to breakfast Mazi said, “”This is the best day ever.“” Phew!
We delivered a few little presents to our friends in the village…
Santa delivering gifts to Bayu”s parents in the village
and later that afternoon I saw Santa surfing…(picture coming)
Here is the present Mazi made for us…
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2013! We miss you all! xoxoxo
Kristen’s Mini Vacation in Ubud
My Trip to Ubud
One of my highlights was my solo trip to Ubud to visit a friend who was in town. I had been starving for female conversation, good food, and just general “urban” opulence. I am very drawn to the healing hippy vibe of Ubud, and I just couldn’t wait to check it out.
I researched and knew exactly what I wanted to do and see in my very brief stint there. My friend picked us a fantastic hotel right in the heart of things, and she brought along 2 new friends whom I immediately adored. I was in expat heaven.
My agenda for my time in Ubud
- Hang with Julia
- Go shopping. Items of interest: yoga clothes, a headband, a dress for Pippin
- Take a yoga class at the Yoga Barn
- Eat at one of the following places: Sari Organic, Clear Cafe, Little K at Yoga Barn, Buddha Bali
- Get some sort of treatment – reflexology, some acupuncture, anything cool and healing
Now it’s kind of feeling weird to post all of this because I only imagine that nobody cares what I had intended to do in Ubud. And I don’t expect you too. It’s just that the whole trip was so cool because it was part of my bigger work of learning to identify what I actually want to do with my time, and then learning how to make that happen for myself. Usually I’m more of a guilty go-along girl. Now I want to figure out what really feeds me, and then own the power to make it actually happen for myself. So I was practicing that, and was proud that I took the time to note what I really wanted to get out of my time in Ubud.
What was even cooler than planning? Executing. And it all sort of fell in place with ease. I didn’t force a thing…all the good stuff just kept lining up.
Lunch at Sari Organik didn’t disappoint.
Here I am at the start of the path that takes you back to the restaurant.
I was interested in the food, but I was more interested in the hike through the rice fields to get to this little oasis. It was just plain awesome. Yummy elixir drinks (I had Tumeric Aloe Vera) and salad. One blog said she had a medicinal salad. That sounded good to me, but not sure mine was medicinal….just good. (I haven’t seen a salad in 8 weeks!)
It was like another world back there. I could see what it means to hear that westerners are buying up the rice fields to build houses. It’s awesome and peaceful back there – and it was dotted with very nice houses (westerner villas) that you don’t see up in Pekatatun. It was very much the way I had pictured Bali and Ubud in particular. I wondered if we should have come to Ubud, and if we had, where the kids would play among these flooded rice fields. I longed for the action and healing vibe of this Ubud, but I worried about what it would have been like to have this many interesting things to purchase. We’ve done a great job of purchasing nothing up in our little neck of woods. There’s not a thing to buy besides rice.
And lastly, we had to dash out of the rice field to try to make a 2pm yoga class at Yoga Barn. In all my research for I Dig Bikram Yoga and about yoga in general, Yoga Barn has been on my radar. I just really wanted to see the place and try a class there.
Unfortunately, the class was cancelled. Disappointing for a minute until I realized Yoga Barn houses KUSH – an ayurvedic spa. We both had tension-relief head treatments and all was well. Here I am at the front desk – I just wanted to document my having been there just in case I become a big wig in the yoga world someday!
Overall, this trip to Ubud was just spectacular. Thank you Julia, Derrick & Robert for making it all the more fun!
More About Our Bali Days
OUR DAYS
This is a lot how our days look.
See Finn on the iPad back there? There is A LOT of that.
Lots of meal times, computer time, chess time, beach time, pool time. The kids all have their own favorite apps. They do their workbooks. The kids (sometimes) journal after lunch. It pours rain and we download another episode of Modern Family (just completed Season 1 and the whole family loves it – even Pippin can sit through our rainy day marathons!)
It’s all good. But, you know, we do all live in one room. Our kids don’t go to school 
(read: we have no break from them.) And we live in a land of very spicy food our kids aren’t fond of. We have our moments, for sure.
But overall, somehow, we are getting everything we had wanted from this trip. The “”inner work”” stuff is working. Somehow that stuff is rapidly changing as we saunter through our lives at island pace. I’m not sure how it works, exactly, but I know I feel happier, more grateful and more content living in my own skin than I ever have before. And we like each other. Alleluiah!
CHESS
There is a lot of chess playing and online chess puzzles. Not my thing, but I am reporting that there is a lot of that happening among the boys and men in my “house.”
I love that Nate teaches them how to play, and that I don’t have to be the one to teach them. Nate often goes into town, too, and plays with people on this platform in the center of town. It’s like the Cambridge Square of Pekutatan, without the coffee. There is a village elder he is yet to beat.
OFFICE TIME
I would say each day I have about a 2-3 hour administrative hour in which I can use the computer to get something done. I just freakin’ love getting stuff done on a laptop. I figure out which hotel we will stay at in Cambodia (with maybe too much research) and talk to Verizon about continuing to freeze our cell phones. I talk with my Business Coach once a week who is helping me plot my return to the US. I spend time in between calls brainstorming my strengths and joys and dreaming of a bright future. The rest of the time I practice managing the fears and self-doubts that occasionally pop up for me as I walk straight into growth and change. And I make a lot of noodles for the kids.
BEACH AND POOL
The kids spend almost every morning that Ratih is here at the beach and pool.
The kids spend MUCH less time at the pool as they did the first few weeks here…but it’s still there, and they swim almost every morning while Ratih is watching them. I keep forgetting to announce that Pippin can swim (!!!)….it’s really incredible. Today I was all the way across the pool when I saw her dive in at the other end and swim the width of the pool! My 3 year old! We won’t have trouble at the river at Bar 717 this year!
What We Eat
Food: How and What We Eat
- Our table for breakfast every morning
This has been one of the trickiest pieces of the trip so far. Indonesian food is way cheap. Western food is more expensive (albeit less than we are used to paying back home.)
Hence our dilemma: we don’t want to spend tons of money, yet our kids don’t want to eat a lot of Indonesian food. But we didn’t come to Bali to seek out expensive yet lousy pizzas.
So we are tolerating the following system at the moment.
Breakfast is included in the cost of our monthly stay here, so that is a great bonus. The food is great. Fresh fruit plates, crepes, omelets, corn flakes, bacon. Decent double espressos. We are to the point, after nearly 8 weeks of eating every day off the same limited menu, where we are really ready for change. But, nevertheless, breakfast has been our steady champion on which we have heavily leaned.
One of 2 things happens for lunch. If Ratih is here, she heads out on her scooter and brings up back warung food (local makeshift restaurants) for about $6 (feeds all 6 of us.) We have a daily standard order of fried chicken, Nasi Campor, a vegetable dish with peanut sauce, white rice, corn fritters, and 4 large waters (plus whatever Ratih chooses for herself.) It comes back wrapped in brown paper, and we either eat it in a lounge or on the floor of our room. Take a look.
Dinner can go one of 3 ways. We can eat Ramen Noodles in the room, and I can doctor them up with lunch leftovers. We might round out this scrappy dinner with mangoes, apples and hard boiled eggs. Looks like this.
- Pippin at Mai Malu drinking a Chocolate Avacado Shake
Or we can order from our own restaurant, which we tend to do every other day or so. It’s easy and they have (lousy) pizza and chicken sate and fish and chips the kids will eat.
Our favorite option is Mai Malu. Every two or 3 days we head to our favorite restaurant which is a short distance from our hotel. The place is amazing. It’s considered an expensive restaurant among the native Balinese here because it caters to westerners who are coming to Medewi to surf, but for us it’s an exciting and tasty bargain.
I ALWAYS get the Cap Cay which is stir-fried veggies & tofu with rice. It’s a huge plate, delicious, and $2. The kids can get burgers or $3 fish and chips and we splurge and let everyone order a 60 cent soda.
The food makes everyone happy, but the best part is the MONKEY.
The monkey lives there and is free to come visit us as we eat. Gotta love a restaurant with a pet monkey!
The Cost of Meals
- My 40 cent warung meal on my way back from Ubud!
Food is definitely less expensive here than at home. That is no surprise. My $2 Cap Cay is an insane bargain and such a relief from the $4.95 Cap Cay they serve in our restaurant.
BUT sometimes I am shocked by the relativity of costs. On the way home from Ubud I asked my driver if we could stop somewhere to have dinner. I told him I was hungy and that if he knew a place I would gladly buy him dinner. We stopped in a place I’ve never been before in Tabanan that was kind of like a serviced buffet. They are standing there with a plate of hot steaming rice and you point to the things behind the window that you want them to put on the top.
Now, there are no prices listed. I have no idea what everything costs, but I’m hungry and easily have $10 on me so I’m not thinking about it. I’ll just get whatever and driver can do. I pick out some nice stir-fried veggies and tofu that look good.
The lady behind the counter hands me my plate and a little laminated card with a price: 40,0oo rupiahs
40 cents!
I just couldn’t believe it. This was a decent yummy healthy meal….and it cost forty CENTS?
How can something, anything, cost 40 cents? I can’t think of anything back home that costs 40 cents. Even at the Dollar Store, where nothing is expensive, you still can’t find something for 40 cents. You need at least a dollar for an item in there.
It still flabbergasts me. Now $2 for a cap cay seems like a rip off. I started looking in town for cheaper options. And then I start feeling a little crazy…how the heck am I ever going to be able to eat at Cesar or Gather again?
WE ARE COCONUTS FOR COCONUTS
One awesome thing about being here is the coconuts. Once we flagged down a passing coconut truck and bought 20 right on the spot. They are 3 for $1…..puts Zico Water to shame.
THE BEST MEAL WE HAD
When we first arrived, we took a tour of the rice fields. It was so awesome that I have 302 pictures and a blog post so good I am overwhelmed to get it up. Well, they offered a meal that day that was so delicious, so authentic, and so yummy that our kids ate it up. We thought that was how it was going to be: our kids gobbling up nutritious and delicious Balinese dishes in banana leaves while sitting in rice fields. It hasn’t quite worked out like that, but we remember our glory meal with great fondness!
Our Busy Village Social Calendar
Tonight was one of those nights.
The kind of nights that makes this trip really freakin’ awesome.
Nate has been regularly playing soccer on the beach at sunset with a group of local 21-ish year old guys who have all grown up here in the village together. After a month of being here, he’s become good buddies with these guys and suddenly Nate is invited to every cremation, temple festival and cock fight in Pekutatun.
The other night he took all seven of the soccer guys out to dinner with Mazi at a local seafood grill and feasted on BBQ clams, calamari, fish and squid. Several of the guys had never even been to this “fancy” restaurant in their village before, so Nate picked up the bill. It cost a whopping $20.
(I’ll have to write a blog post soon about the unbelievable cost of things here – Nate’s haircut yesterday was 50 cents.)
The main Balinese guy in our lives is named Bayu. Love the guy. Would bring him back to the States to live with us if I could, but not so sure that would be of any interest to him. Anyway, he is a server here at the restaurant. We have gotten to know him well and he was Nate’s first connection to the soccer team. Tonight Bayu invited us to his house for a Grill-it-Yourself Satay party.
Of course he didn’t call it that. I thought he was just inviting us over for dinner and was planning to grill.
We got there and I realized this was going to more like a small village party. In attendance were Bayu’s parents, grandfather, his cousin, cousin’s wife, cousin’s baby, the whole soccer team, the neighbor who is sisters with the cousin’s wife’s mother….you get the idea. It was a party.
And we got to grill traditional satay. You start with a concoction of ground-up coconut, fish & Balinese spices. Then we wrapped this mixture around the ends of wide flat bamboo skewers and grilled it over open flame. And it is T-A-S-T-Y.
Somebody showed up with a case of water and 2 bottles of Sprite and 1 bottle of Coke which were offered exclusively to our children. A neighbor friend named Erly, who we also know from the hotel, brought me steamed bananas. There was a baby to pass around and play with. The kids climbed a mango tree. Baby chickens climbed on coconuts…it was just one of those nights where I pinched myself and said, wait, are we really in Indonesia with our three kids? This is awesome. This is why we came.
At one point, just to really seal the deal on the magic memory, the worldly cousin who has worked on cruise ships brought out his guitar. Somebody turned down the GreenDay that had been playing over the stereo (!) and the cousin busted out with an acoustical rendition of Country Roads.
Now remember, we are fresh from a summer well spent around campfires at Bar 717 Ranch. We have those lyrics well etched into our recent memory, including the kids, and hearing that song feels comfy and homey and safe. And here we are in Bali busting the song out at the top of our lungs along with a chorus of Indonesians. Even Pippin remembered and sang along. It was just plain magical.
To top off the evening, after eating this slammin’ dinner pictured left (Coconut fish satay, sauteed greens, rice and roasted peanuts) we heard gamalong music playing off in the distance. Erly tells me it’s an all women ensemble practicing and asks me if I’d like to go see them play.
Ah, YES.
She and I walked down to the little local temple with Pippin and watched while the ladies played this mesmerizing music. It made me want to join some sort of ensemble when I get home so that I can experience that sensation of group harmony – of every person’s small part contributing to a greater creation of beauty. Well….I probably won’t really join a SF Gamalong for Western Chicks group upon arrival in the States, but I did feel moved by the peaceful notion of simply needing to play one small part…. not have to be everything…and still end up with a harmonious and beautiful result that was worth the effort.
When Pippin had reached her tolerance for the “too loud” music, we walked out onto the street and she exclaimed, “Hi, Guys!” Waiting for us on mopeds were the boys in our family, with our village chaperones, ready to whisk us back to our comfy hotel. We zoomed home, happy and full-hearted…so appreciative to our local hosts….and so very grateful that our journey is unfolding in exactly this way.
Pippin’s 3rd Birthday
A short and sweet post for our short and sweet little firecracker of a daughter.
Pippin turned 3 here in Bali.
Dada had snuck to Target while back in Australia and picked up a few gifts to surprise her.
Mazi picked out a giant pink stuffed Piglet from the local Mini Mart on the morning of her birthday because he knew she’d like it. He was right!
The hotel surprised all of us with a cake – decorated with Balinese flair – and crowned her with a homemade palm leaf crown.
She felt like a princess and had a great birthday. Wanted to share some images of our fun night with you all.
xoxo Love to you all xoxoxo
k, n, m, f, p
A Day in the Life
A Typical Day in Bali
by Nate Brooks
7
:00am The game of musical beds comes to an end. Our bedroom layout consists of a queen bed flanked by two twins. Sometimes we sandwich them together for a gigantic family sleeping flotilla. Most nights Pippin claims the middle of the queen bed and ends up sleep kicking whomever dares to join her. The canopy of mosquito nets makes a fun game of morning peek-a-boo and then it’s off to the races.
7:15 Kristen takes a morning swim in the pool while I re-organize the detritus from the previous day and prepare for the crew that comes in to clean, make the beds and freshen up the towels. The boys like doing math on Dreambox and Pippin use a coloring app on the iPad.
8:15ish We eat breakfast. Again, there are a lot of permutations on this one. This morning Pippin and Mazi went to breakfast together on their own. Finn is fond of doing as much dining in the room as he can. Kristen gets an espresso poolside if the right barista is working the machine. I prefer when the kids opt to sit at their own table and Kristen and I get a two-top and conversation to ourselves.
9:00ish Back to the room where the kids get their Hay Day fix. It’s another app that revolves around being a farmer and growing and selling crops and raising animals. The boys are very supportive and cooperative as they negotiate important business decisions. I can attest to the games addictive qualities… After the kids go to bed I’ve spent a few night cultivating the crops and helping the farm to progress efficiently.
9:30 Kristen works on the laptop in her “office” – (air-conditioned movie room near the lobby). I apply large amounts of sunscreen to the kids and make sure everyone has swimsuits and googles and then we vacate the room for the cleaners. Having things cleaned feels like paradise to me. 
We’ve hired a nanny (or more accurately a father’s helper). Ratih’s parents run an orphanage in the village and although the language barrier presents some challenges, she is super sweet with Pippin and brings new and interesting games and activities to our family. I get to spend some individual time with each of the kids (Pippin in the pool, Finn with his workbooks under the palapa, or Mazi surfing.) 
Sometimes we are all together on a sandcastle or in the pool or boogie boarding. We move in a 300 ft radius from the pool to the beach to the tide pools to the surf and retreat back to the air conditioning for reading, writing and drawing activities.
1:00 Ratih zips into town on her scooter and picks up lunch while I get the kids cleaned up and back into dry clothes. We meet Kristen for a tasty and sometimes ridiculously spicy Balinese lunch. The six of us eat our fill for less than a dollar a person.
2:00 Ratih heads home and we are back to the room for naps… Generally girls sleep, and I read or head out to surf or swim in the ocean.
3:30 Kristen does something with the kids (Sometimes a trip into town, at the pool or beach or on the screens) The hours seem to tick by without much thought. I play soccer on the beach with the local 20-somethings a few times a week. They are all ridiculously fast and adept at playing in the sand. My soccer skills seem to inspire a lot of laughter and good-natured banter among both teams. Being the only westerner among lithe diminutive Balinese youth makes me feel like a clumsy giant… This is a new and humbling feeling for me on the athletic field. I’m getting older.
6:15 We are all at the pool or on the beach for highlight of the day. The sun sets over the ocean and the island of Java. 
The light is spectacular with an array of cotton candy pinks, juicy oranges, electric blues, muted purples, and fiery reds. The fishing boats are on the water. The fishermen are casting nets and lines from the shore. Families are bathing in the tide pools. My heart is warmed by this rare peaceful moment.
6:30 We move on to dinner… Occasionally at the restaurant, sometimes in town, and a surprising number of times we eat some combination of ramen noodles, mangoes, apples, young coconuts, mangosteens, snake fruit, melons, and peanut butter sandwiches.
8:00 I read to the kids, (just finished The Phantom Tollboth–thanks Jim!) or we play card games (Spot it and the Pirate addition of Fluxx have been in heavy rotation since I introduced them on the train in Australia—Thank you Games of Berkeley!)
We drop the mosquito nets and crawl into bed… Ready to do it all again tomorrow.
Bali – Arriving and Settling
Arriving in Bali
Last week we arrived at the seemingly perfect manifestation of the vision we have been cultivating for the last 2 years. We didn’t even really know what we were doing. While at our downtown Perth hotel, we randomly picked a resort from the Lonely Planet guide…somewhere not one person we know has ever heard of or recommended. That’s totally how we roll.
We arrived at the Denpassar airport 
and were so grateful to find a sweet man waiting for us with a wooden handmade sign framing our name. “Come with me,” he beckoned. He was friendly and quickly whisked us through the chaos of the airport – (first thing I saw was a Starbucks and a ColdStone! Hadn’t seen one of those anywhere in Australia.) Then we paused in front of the bathroom where he notified us that it would be a 3 hour drive (!) and that we should use the facilities if need to. 3 hours! We didn’t know distance – we just picked our hotel from a map, so we were a little surprised. But, he was taking care of everything and we were hopping into an air-conditioned van with someone who knew what was happening. We liked that.
Have you ever done the Mentos in Coke volcanic experiment? You take a bottle of Coke, stick in a tube, and then toss in some Mentos. The result is an erupting geyser of bubbling peppermint Coke – shooting out of the tube. This was the image that came to mind as we shot out of Denpassar in our air-conditioned shuttle van. Bubbles of mopeds fizzled around us as we shot out this narrow tube of a road. Everything looked beautiful, gritty, and congested.
Mazi did not hide his discontent and let us know that this was not the Bali he had expected. He wasn’t very happy with what he saw and pointed out 
all the places along the side of the road that he hoped we were NOT staying.
As we took in the exciting chaos around us, our journey’s carbonation began to fizzle out as the sun set. Soon we were just 2 awake adults holding sweaty sleeping children and silently high-fiving each other that we had made it – we had actually made it to Bali, just like we had said we would.
Back when I told all of you that we were “thinking of moving to Bali” and then “planning to move to Bali”….I was just talking. Just playing. How we would actually get there, actually get all our shizzy buttoned up back in Berkeley, how we would pay for such an ordeal….it all just seemed a little crazy. We were only heading toward an idea with no idea how it was going to happen.
Exactly as imagined
We know that works – to just define what you want and head toward it anyway. You don’t have to figure how. Just act as if it is going to happen and “the Universe will conspire to make it happen.” But doing just that is quite a different thing. It’s scary and crazy as hell. Especially with 3 kids in tow.
So to be in that air-conditioned van heading toward the “Bali” we had imagined…the Bali we had conjured up in our imaginations as the place that “has got to be better” and more nourishing to the used-up shells we had become in early 2009…this arrival felt like a subtle and surreal yet shining and sweet victory.
Whatever we found was going to be good. But as fate would have it, we ended up at a dream spot – a tasteful resort RIGHT on the black sand beach,
steps from safe swimming, boogie boarding and surfing. Our room is steps away from a glistening huge pool and kiddie pool and also a palapa-type restaurant whose prices soothed our Australian-stung wallets. It felt like a “find” – a place definitely beyond the hubbabaloo of the touristy south of the island, but with plenty of the comforts that we are finally admitting we need and want at this stage of our lives (a pool to occupy and exhaust our kids and wifi for all the modern wonders it provides…I freakin love the internet.)
Our plan was to use this little patch of luxury and convenience as a launch pad to start our 4-month stay in Indonesia. We would relax, acclimate and start scouring the local scene for longer-term rental deals.
It worked. We met locals. We figured out we really are in “real Bali”….or really in “real Indonesia” as it feels to me. So “real” that there really aren’t any western villas available for rent. So, we asked if could stay here in more of a longer term rental situation – and they said yes. It seems a perfect blend of comfort and exploration for us. Now we can go into the village, have dinner with our new friends in local warungs (makeshift restaurants in homelike settings) but still retreat to the comforts of a pool and air-conditioning in our little patch of western comfort. So we are “home” – at least until Jan 8 when we have to fly to Singapore to renew our visas. We will probably come back here after that.
Our goal in being here is to set up shop (get a routine and a nanny) so that we can get things done that we have dreamed of. For me that is all things online – connecting, blogging, developing personal wellness and continuing to explore making money online. So constant travel and jumping from accommodation to accommodation doesn’t serve that goal. There is a good chance we will hunker down here for good (until late April when we will either explore a little of Southeast Asia or head back to the States) unless a better options effortlessly presents itself.
That is the stats my friends. If you look at a map, we are on the west coast of Bali near a little town called Medewi. We are staying at the Puri Dajuma Cottages.
Be well our dear friends. Know that we are happy (finally) and healthy and missing all of you. Lots of love.
Xoxo Kristen and Nate
Brooks Family Adventure 